Editing Umayyad Caliphate (section)

==History==

===Origins===
{{main|Umayyad dynasty}}

====Early influence====
During the [[pre-Islamic Arabia|pre-Islamic period]], the [[Umayyad dynasty|Umayyads]] or Banu Umayya were a leading clan of the [[Quraysh]] tribe of [[Mecca]].{{sfn|Levi Della Vida|Bosworth|2000|p=838}} By the end of the 6th century, the Umayyads dominated the Quraysh's increasingly prosperous trade networks with [[Syria (region)|Syria]] and developed economic and military alliances with the [[Bedouin|nomadic Arab]] tribes that controlled the northern and central Arabian desert expanses, affording the clan a degree of political power in the region.{{sfn|Donner|1981|p=51}} The Umayyads under the leadership of [[Abu Sufyan ibn Harb]] were the principal leaders of Meccan opposition to the Islamic prophet [[Muhammad]], but after the latter captured Mecca in 630, Abu Sufyan and the Quraysh embraced Islam.{{sfn|Hawting|2000|pp=22–23}}{{sfn|Wellhausen|1927|pp=40–41}} To reconcile his influential Qurayshite tribesmen, Muhammad gave his former opponents, including Abu Sufyan, a stake in the new order.{{sfn|Hawting|2000|p=23}}{{sfn|Donner|1981|p=77}}{{sfn|Wellhausen|1927|p=20}} Abu Sufyan and the Umayyads relocated to [[Medina]], Islam's political centre, to maintain their new-found political influence in the nascent Muslim community.{{sfn|Wellhausen|1927|pp=20–21}}

Muhammad's death in 632 left open the succession of leadership of the Muslim community.{{sfn|Kennedy|2004|p=50}} Leaders of the [[Ansar (Islam)|Ansar]], the natives of Medina who had provided Muhammad safe haven after his [[Hegira|emigration from Mecca]] in 622, discussed forwarding their own candidate out of concern that the [[Muhajirun]], Muhammad's early followers and fellow emigrants from Mecca, would ally with their fellow tribesmen from the former Qurayshite elite and take control of the Muslim state.{{sfn|Kennedy|2004|p=51}} The Muhajirun gave allegiance to one of their own, the early, elderly [[companions of Muhammad|companion of Muhammad]], [[Abu Bakr]] ({{reign|632|634}}), and put an end to Ansarite deliberations.{{sfn|Kennedy|2004|pp=51–52}} Abu Bakr was viewed as acceptable by the Ansar and the Qurayshite elite and was acknowledged as [[caliph]] (leader of the Muslim community).{{sfn|Kennedy|2004|pp=51–53}} He showed favor to the Umayyads by awarding them command roles in the [[Muslim conquest of Syria]]. One of the appointees was [[Yazid ibn Abi Sufyan|Yazid]], the son of Abu Sufyan, who owned property and maintained trade networks in Syria.{{sfn|Madelung|1997|p=45}}{{sfn|Donner|1981|p=114}}

Abu Bakr's successor [[Umar]] ({{reign|634|644}}) curtailed the influence of the Qurayshite elite in favor of Muhammad's earlier supporters in the administration and military, but nonetheless allowed the growing foothold of Abu Sufyan's sons in Syria, which was all but conquered by 638.{{sfn|Madelung|1997|pp=60–61}} When Umar's overall commander of the province [[Abu Ubayda ibn al-Jarrah]] died in 639, he appointed Yazid governor of Syria's [[Jund Dimashq|Damascus]], [[Jund Filastin|Palestine]] and [[Jund al-Urdunn|Jordan]] districts.{{sfn|Madelung|1997|pp=60–61}} Yazid died shortly after and Umar appointed his brother [[Mu'awiya I|Mu'awiya]] in his place.{{sfn|Madelung|1997|p=61}} Umar's exceptional treatment of Abu Sufyan's sons may have stemmed from his respect for the family, their burgeoning alliance with the powerful [[Banu Kalb]] tribe as a counterbalance to the influential [[Himyar]]ite settlers in [[Homs]] who viewed themselves as equals to the Quraysh in nobility, or the lack of a suitable candidate at the time, particularly amid the [[plague of Amwas]] which had already killed Abu Ubayda and Yazid.{{sfn|Madelung|1997|p=61}} Under Mu'awiya's stewardship, Syria remained domestically peaceful, organized and well-defended from its former [[Byzantine Empire|Byzantine]] rulers.{{sfn|Kennedy|2004|pp=62–64}}

====Caliphate of Uthman====
[[File:Syria in the 9th century.svg|thumb|upright=1.2|Map of [[Bilad al-Sham|Islamic Syria]] (''Bilad al-Sham''), the metropolis of the Umayyad Caliphate. The founder of the Umayyad Caliphate, [[Mu'awiya I]], had originally been governor of the ''[[junds]]'' (military districts) of [[Jund Dimashq|Damascus]] (''Dimashq'') and [[Jund al-Urdunn|Jordan]] (''al-Urdunn'') in 639 before gaining authority over the rest of Syria's ''junds'' during the caliphate of [[Uthman]] (644–656), a member of the [[Umayyad dynasty|Umayyad family]]]]

Umar's successor, [[Uthman ibn Affan]], was a wealthy Umayyad and early Muslim convert with marital ties to Muhammad.{{sfn|Madelung|1997|p=80}} He was elected by the ''[[shura]]'' council, composed of Muhammad's cousin [[Ali]], [[al-Zubayr ibn al-Awwam]], [[Talha ibn Ubayd Allah]], [[Sa'd ibn Abi Waqqas]] and [[Abd al-Rahman ibn Awf]], all of whom were close, early companions of Muhammad and belonged to the Quraysh.{{sfn|Madelung|1997|p=80}}{{sfn|Wellhausen|1927|p=45}} He was chosen over Ali because he would ensure the concentration of state power into the hands of the Quraysh, as opposed to Ali's determination to diffuse power among all of the Muslim factions.{{sfn|Kennedy|2004|p=70}} From early in his reign, Uthman displayed explicit favouritism to his kinsmen, in stark contrast to his predecessors.{{sfn|Madelung|1997|p=80}}{{sfn|Wellhausen|1927|p=45}} He appointed his family members as governors over the regions successively conquered under Umar and himself, namely much of the [[Sasanian Empire]], i.e. Iraq and Iran, and the former Byzantine territories of Syria and Egypt.{{sfn|Wellhausen|1927|p=45}} In Medina, he relied extensively on the counsel of his Umayyad cousins, the brothers [[Al-Harith ibn al-Hakam|al-Harith]] and [[Marwan ibn al-Hakam]].{{sfn|Kennedy|2004|p=75}} According to the historian [[Wilferd Madelung]], this policy stemmed from Uthman's "conviction that the house of Umayya, as the core clan of Quraysh, was uniquely qualified to rule in the name of Islam".{{sfn|Madelung|1997|p=80}}

Uthman's nepotism provoked the ire of the Ansar and the members of the ''shura''.{{sfn|Madelung|1997|p=80}}{{sfn|Wellhausen|1927|p=45}} In 645/46, he added the [[Al-Jazira (caliphal province)|Jazira]] (Upper Mesopotamia) to Mu'awiya's Syrian governorship and granted the latter's request to take possession of all Byzantine crown lands in Syria to help pay his troops.{{sfn|Kennedy|2004|p=63}} He had the surplus taxes from the wealthy provinces of [[Kufa]] and Egypt forwarded to the treasury in Medina, which he used at his personal disposal, frequently disbursing its funds and war booty to his Umayyad relatives.{{sfn|Madelung|1997|pp=80–81}} Moreover, the lucrative Sasanian crown lands of Iraq, which Umar had designated as communal property for the benefit of the [[amsar|Arab garrison towns]] of Kufa and [[Basra]], were turned into caliphal crown lands to be used at Uthman's discretion.{{sfn|Madelung|1997|p=81}} Mounting resentment against Uthman's rule in Iraq and Egypt and among the Ansar and Quraysh of Medina culminated in the [[Assassination of Uthman|killing of the caliph]] in 656. In the assessment of the historian [[Hugh N. Kennedy]], Uthman was killed because of his determination to centralize control over the [[Rashidun Caliphate|caliphate]]'s government by the traditional elite of the Quraysh, particularly his Umayyad clan, which he believed possessed the "experience and ability" to govern, at the expense of the interests, rights and privileges of many early Muslims.{{sfn|Kennedy|2004|p=75}}

====First Fitna====
After Uthman's assassination, Ali was recognized as caliph in Medina, though his support stemmed from the Ansar and the Iraqis, while the bulk of the Quraysh was wary of his rule.{{sfn|Kennedy|2004|p=75}}{{sfn|Madelung|1997|p=141}} The first challenge to his authority came from the Qurayshite leaders al-Zubayr and Talha, who had opposed Uthman's empowerment of the Umayyad clan but feared that their own influence and the power of the Quraysh, in general, would dissipate under Ali.{{sfn|Kennedy|2004|pp=75–76}}{{sfn|Hawting|2000|p=27}} Backed by one of Muhammad's wives, [[A'isha]], they attempted to rally support against Ali among the troops of Basra, prompting the caliph to leave for Iraq's other garrison town, Kufa, where he could better confront his challengers.{{sfn|Kennedy|2004|p=76}} Ali defeated them at the [[Battle of the Camel]], in which al-Zubayr and Talha were slain and A'isha consequently entered self-imposed seclusion.{{sfn|Kennedy|2004|p=76}}{{sfn|Wellhausen|1927|p=53}} Ali's sovereignty was thereafter recognized in Basra and Egypt and he established Kufa as the caliphate's new capital.{{sfn|Wellhausen|1927|p=53}}

Although Ali was able to replace Uthman's governors in Egypt and Iraq with relative ease, Mu'awiya had developed a solid power-base and an effective military against the Byzantines from the Arab tribes of Syria.{{sfn|Kennedy|2004|p=76}} Mu'awiya did not claim the caliphate but was determined to retain control of Syria and opposed Ali in the name of avenging his kinsman Uthman, accusing the caliph of culpability in his death.{{sfn|Kennedy|2004|pp=76, 78}}{{sfn|Wellhausen|1927|pp=55–56}}{{sfn|Madelung|1997|p=190}} Ali and Mu'awiya fought to a stalemate at the [[Battle of Siffin]] in early 657. Ali agreed to settle the matter with Mu'awiya by arbitration, though the talks failed to achieve a resolution.{{sfn|Hinds|1993|p=265}} The decision to arbitrate fundamentally weakened Ali's political position as he was forced to negotiate with Mu'awiya on equal terms, while it drove a significant number of Ali's supporters, who became known as the [[Kharijites]], to revolt.{{sfn|Kennedy|2004|p=79}} Ali's coalition steadily disintegrated and many Iraqi tribal nobles secretly defected to Mu'awiya, while the latter's ally [[Amr ibn al-As]] ousted Ali's governor from Egypt in July 658.{{sfn|Hinds|1993|p=265}}{{sfn|Kennedy|2004|p=80}} In July 660 Mu'awiya was formally recognized as caliph in [[Jerusalem]] by his Syrian tribal allies.{{sfn|Hinds|1993|p=265}} Ali was assassinated by a Kharijite dissident in January 661.{{sfn|Hinds|1993|p=59}} His son [[Hasan ibn Ali|Hasan]] succeeded him but abdicated in return for compensation upon Mu'awiya's arrival to Iraq with his Syrian army in the summer.{{sfn|Hinds|1993|p=265}} At that point, Mu'awiya entered Kufa and received the allegiance of the Iraqis.{{sfn|Wellhausen|1927|p=59}}

===Sufyanid period===
====Caliphate of Mu'awiya====
[[File:Greek Muawiya inscription of Hammat Gader, 663 AD.png|thumb|upright=1|A [[Greek language|Greek]] inscription crediting Mu'awiya for restoring [[Roman Empire|Roman]] bathhouses at [[Hammat Gader]] near [[Tiberias]] in 663, the only known epigraphic attestation to Mu'awiya's rule in Syria]]

The recognition of Mu'awiya in Kufa, referred to as the "year of unification of the community" in the Muslim traditional sources, is generally considered the start of his caliphate.{{sfn|Hinds|1993|p=265}} With his accession, the political capital and the caliphal treasury were transferred to [[Damascus]], the seat of Mu'awiya's power.{{sfn|Wellhausen|1927|pp=59–60}} Syria's emergence as the metropolis of the Umayyad Caliphate was the result of Mu'awiya's twenty-year entrenchment in the province, the geographic distribution of its relatively large Arab population throughout the province in contrast to their seclusion in garrison cities in other provinces, and the domination of a single tribal confederation, the Kalb-led [[Quda'a]], as opposed to the wide array of competing tribal groups in Iraq.{{sfn|Hawting|2000a|p=842}} The long-established, formerly Christian Arab tribes in Syria, having been integrated into the military of the Byzantine Empire and their [[Ghassanid]] client kings, were "more accustomed to order and obedience" than their Iraqi counterparts, according to the historian [[Julius Wellhausen]].{{sfn|Wellhausen|1927|p=55}} Mu'awiya relied on the powerful Kalbite chief [[Ibn Bahdal]] and the [[Kinda (tribe)|Kindite]] nobleman [[Shurahbil ibn Simt]] alongside the Qurayshite commanders [[al-Dahhak ibn Qays al-Fihri]] and [[Abd al-Rahman ibn Khalid|Abd al-Rahman]], the son of the prominent general [[Khalid ibn al-Walid]], to guarantee the loyalty of the key military components of Syria.{{sfn|Kennedy|2004|pp=86–87}} Mu'awiya preoccupied his core Syrian troops in nearly annual or bi-annual land and sea raids against Byzantium, which provided them with battlefield experience and war spoils, but secured no permanent territorial gains.{{sfn|Kaegi|1992|p=247}} Toward the end of his reign the caliph entered a thirty-year truce with Byzantine emperor [[Constantine IV]] ({{reign|668|685}}),{{sfn|Kennedy|2004|pp=87–88}} obliging the Umayyads to pay the Empire an annual tribute of gold, horses and slaves.{{sfn|Lilie|1976|pp=81–82}}

[[File:Umayyad Caliphate. temp. Mu'awiya I ibn Abi Sufyan. AH 41-60 AD 661-680.jpg|thumb|left|upright=1|[[Arab–Sasanian coinage|Arab-Sasanian]]-style Umayyad coin minted under [[Mu'awiya I]] rule in [[Basra]] in 675/76 in the name of the Umayyad governor [[Ubayd Allah ibn Ziyad]]. The latter's governorship later spanned all of the eastern caliphate. His father [[Ziyad ibn Abihi]] was adopted as a half-brother by Mu'awiya I, who made him his practical viceroy over the eastern caliphate.]]

Mu'awiya's main challenge was reestablishing the unity of the Muslim community and asserting his authority and that of the caliphate in the provinces amid the political and social disintegration of the First Fitna.{{sfn|Kennedy|2004|p=82}} There remained significant opposition to his assumption of the caliphate and to a strong central government.{{sfn|Kennedy|2004|pp=82–83}} The garrison towns of Kufa and Basra, populated by the Arab immigrants and troops who arrived during the [[Muslim conquest of Persia|conquest of Iraq in the 630s–640s]], resented the transition of power to Syria.{{sfn|Kennedy|2004|p=83}} They remained divided, nonetheless, as both cities competed for power and influence in Iraq and its eastern dependencies and remained divided between the Arab tribal nobility and the early Muslim converts, the latter of whom were divided between the pro-[[Alids]] (loyalists of Ali) and the Kharijites, who followed their own strict interpretation of Islam.{{sfn|Kennedy|2004|p=83}} The caliph applied a decentralized approach to governing Iraq by forging alliances with its tribal nobility, such as the Kufan leader [[al-Ash'ath ibn Qays]], and entrusting the administration of Kufa and Basra to highly experienced members of the [[Thaqif]] tribe, [[al-Mughira ibn Shu'ba]] and the latter's protege [[Ziyad ibn Abihi]] (whom Mu'awiya adopted as his half-brother), respectively.{{sfn|Kennedy|2004|pp=83–85}} In return for recognizing his suzerainty, maintaining order, and forwarding a token portion of the provincial tax revenues to Damascus, the caliph let his governors rule with practical independence.{{sfn|Kennedy|2004|p=83}} After al-Mughira's death in 670, Mu'awiya attached Kufa and its dependencies to the governorship of Basra, making Ziyad the practical viceroy over the eastern half of the caliphate.{{sfn|Kennedy|2004|p=85}} Afterward, Ziyad launched a concerted campaign to firmly establish Arab rule in the vast [[Greater Khorasan|Khurasan]] region east of Iran and restart the Muslim conquests in the surrounding areas.{{sfn|Kennedy|2004|p=86}} Not long after Ziyad's death, he was succeeded by his son [[Ubayd Allah ibn Ziyad]].{{sfn|Kennedy|2004|p=86}} Meanwhile, Amr ibn al-As ruled Egypt from the provincial capital of [[Fustat]] as a virtual partner of Mu'awiya until his death in 663, after which loyalist governors were appointed and the province became a practical appendage of Syria.{{sfn|Kennedy|2004|p=87}} Under Mu'awiya's direction, the Muslim conquest of [[Ifriqiya]] (central North Africa) was launched by the commander [[Uqba ibn Nafi]] in 670, which extended Umayyad control as far as [[Byzacena]] (modern southern Tunisia), where Uqba founded the permanent Arab garrison city of [[Kairouan]].{{sfn|Kennedy|2007|p=209}}{{sfn|Christides|2000|p=790}}

====Succession of Yazid I and collapse of Sufyanid rule====
[[File:Sufyanid dynasty genealogy.png|thumb|upright=1.15|Genealogical tree of the Sufyanids. The names in red indicate caliphs.]]

In contrast to Uthman, Mu'awiya restricted the influence of his Umayyad kinsmen to the governorship of Medina, where the dispossessed Islamic elite, including the Umayyads, was suspicious or hostile toward his rule.{{sfn|Kennedy|2004|p=83}}{{sfn|Wellhausen|1927|p=135}} However, in an unprecedented move in Islamic politics, Mu'awiya nominated his own son, [[Yazid I]], as his successor in 676, introducing hereditary rule to caliphal succession and, in practice, turning the office of the caliph into a kingship.{{sfn|Duri|2011|pp=22–23}} The act was met with disapproval or opposition by the Iraqis and the Hejaz-based Quraysh, including the Umayyads, but most were bribed or coerced into acceptance.{{sfn|Kennedy|2004|p=88}} Yazid acceded after Mu'awiya's death in 680 and almost immediately faced a challenge to his rule by the Kufan partisans of Ali who had invited Ali's son and Muhammad's grandson [[Husayn ibn Ali|Husayn]] to stage a revolt against Umayyad rule from Iraq.{{sfn|Kennedy|2004|pp=88–89}} An army mobilized by Iraq's governor Ibn Ziyad intercepted and killed Husayn outside Kufa at the [[Battle of Karbala]]. Although it stymied active opposition to Yazid in Iraq, the killing of Muhammad's grandson left many Muslims outraged and significantly increased Kufan hostility toward the Umayyads and sympathy for the family of Ali.{{sfn|Kennedy|2004|p=89}}

The next major challenge to Yazid's rule emanated from the Hejaz where [[Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr]], the son of al-Zubayr ibn al-Awwam and grandson of Abu Bakr, advocated for a ''shura'' among the Quraysh to elect the caliph and rallied opposition to the Umayyads from his headquarters in Islam's holiest sanctuary, the [[Ka'aba]] in Mecca.{{sfn|Kennedy|2004|p=89}} The Ansar and Quraysh of Medina also took up the anti-Umayyad cause and in 683 expelled the Umayyads from the city.{{sfn|Kennedy|2004|pp=89–90}} Yazid's Syrian troops routed the Medinans at the [[Battle of al-Harra]] and subsequently plundered Medina before [[Siege of Mecca (683)|besieging Ibn al-Zubayr in Mecca]].{{sfn|Kennedy|2004|p=90}} The Syrians withdrew upon news of Yazid's death in 683, after which Ibn al-Zubayr declared himself caliph and soon after gained recognition in most provinces of the caliphate, including Iraq and Egypt.{{sfn|Gibb|1960a|p=55}} In Syria Ibn Bahdal secured the succession of Yazid's son and appointed successor [[Mu'awiya II]], whose authority was likely restricted to Damascus and Syria's southern districts.{{sfn|Kennedy|2004|p=90}}{{sfn|Bosworth|1993|p=268}} Mu'awiya II had been ill from the beginning of his accession, with al-Dahhak assuming the practical duties of his office, and he died in early 684 without naming a successor.{{sfn|Duri|2011|pp=23–24}} His death marked the end of the Umayyads' Sufyanid ruling house, called after Mu'awiya I's father Abu Sufyan.{{sfn|Levi Della Vida|Bosworth|2000|pp=838–839}}{{efn|The eldest surviving Sufyanid, [[al-Walid ibn Utba]], the son of Mu'awiya I's full brother, died shortly after Mu'awiya II's death, while another paternal uncle of the deceased caliph, [[Uthman ibn Anbasa ibn Abi Sufyan]], who had support from the Kalb of the Jordan district, recognized the caliphate of his maternal uncle Ibn al-Zubayr.{{sfn|Bosworth|1993|p=268}} Ibn Bahdal favored Mu'awiya II's brothers, [[Khalid ibn Yazid|Khalid]] and [[Abd Allah ibn Yazid|Abd Allah]], for the succession, but they were viewed as too young and inexperienced by most of the pro-Umayyad tribal nobility in Syria.{{sfn|Kennedy|2004|p=91}}{{sfn|Duri|2011|pp=24–25}}}}

===Early Marwanid period===
====Marwanid transition and end of Second Fitna====
[[File:Second Fitna Territorial Control Map ca 686.svg|thumb|upright=1.5|alt=Map of the Middle East with shaded areas indicating the territorial control of the main political actors of the Second Muslim Civil War|Map of the caliphate during the [[Second Fitna]] in {{circa|686}}. The area shaded in red represents the approximate territory of the Umayyads, while the areas shaded in blue, green and yellow respectively represent the territories of the [[Mecca]]-based caliph [[Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr]], the pro-Alid ruler of [[Kufa]] [[Mukhtar al-Thaqafi]], and the [[Kharijites]] ]]

Umayyad authority nearly collapsed in their Syrian stronghold after the death of Mu'awiya II.{{sfn|Kennedy|2004|pp=90–91}} Al-Dahhak in Damascus, the [[Qays]] tribes in [[Jund Qinnasrin|Qinnasrin]] (northern Syria) and the Jazira, the [[Judham]] in Palestine, and the Ansar and South Arabians of Homs all opted to recognize Ibn al-Zubayr.{{sfn|Crone|1994|p=45}} Marwan ibn al-Hakam, the leader of the Umayyads expelled to Syria from Medina, was prepared to submit to Ibn al-Zubayr as well but was persuaded to forward his candidacy for the caliphate by Ibn Ziyad. The latter had been driven out of Iraq and strove to uphold Umayyad rule.{{sfn|Kennedy|2004|pp=90–91}} During a summit of pro-Umayyad Syrian tribes, namely the Quda'a and their Kindite allies, organized by Ibn Bahdal in the old Ghassanid capital of [[Jabiya]], Marwan was elected caliph in exchange for economic privileges to the loyalist tribes.{{sfn|Kennedy|2004|p=91}}{{sfn|Crone|1994|p=46}} At the subsequent [[Battle of Marj Rahit (684)|Battle of Marj Rahit]] in August 684, Marwan led his tribal allies to a decisive victory against a much larger Qaysite army led by al-Dahhak, who was slain.{{sfn|Kennedy|2004|p=91}} Not long after, the South Arabians of Homs and the Judham joined the Quda'a to form the tribal confederation of [[Yaman (tribal group)|Yaman]].{{sfn|Crone|1994|p=46}} Marj Rahit led to the long-running [[Qays–Yaman rivalry|conflict between the Qays and Yaman]] coalitions. The Qays regrouped in the [[Euphrates river]] fortress of [[Circesium]] under [[Zufar ibn al-Harith al-Kilabi]] and moved to avenge their losses.{{sfn|Wellhausen|1927|pp=201–202}}{{sfn|Kennedy|2001|p=33}} Although Marwan regained full control of Syria in the months following the battle, the inter-tribal strife undermined the foundation of Umayyad power: the Syrian army.{{sfn|Wellhausen|1927|p=182}}

In 685, Marwan and Ibn Bahdal expelled the [[Abd al-Rahman ibn Utba al-Fihri|Zubayrid governor of Egypt]] and replaced him with Marwan's son [[Abd al-Aziz ibn Marwan|Abd al-Aziz]], who would rule the province until his death in 704/05.{{sfn|Kennedy|2004|pp=92–93}} Another son, [[Muhammad ibn Marwan|Muhammad]], was appointed to suppress Zufar's rebellion in the Jazira.{{sfn|Kennedy|2004|p=92}} Marwan died in April 685 and was succeeded by his eldest son [[Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan|Abd al-Malik]].{{sfn|Kennedy|2004|p=93}} Although Ibn Ziyad attempted to restore the Syrian army of the Sufyanid caliphs, persistent divisions along Qays–Yaman lines contributed to the army's massive rout and Ibn Ziyad's death at the hands of the pro-Alid forces of [[Mukhtar al-Thaqafi]] of Kufa at the [[Battle of Khazir]] in August 686.{{sfn|Kennedy|2001|pp=32–33}} The setback delayed Abd al-Malik's attempts to reestablish Umayyad authority in Iraq,{{sfn|Kennedy|2001|p=33}} while pressures from the Byzantine Empire and raids into Syria by the Byzantines' [[Mardaite]] allies compelled him to sign a peace treaty with Byzantium in 689 which substantially increased the Umayyads' annual tribute to the Empire.{{sfn|Dixon|1969|pp=220–222}} During his siege of Circesium in 691, Abd al-Malik reconciled with Zufar and the Qays by offering them privileged positions in the Umayyad court and army, signaling a new policy by the caliph and his successors to balance the interests of the Qays and Yaman in the Umayyad state.{{sfn|Kennedy|2004|pp=97–98}}{{sfn|Dixon|1969|pp=174–176, 206–208}} With his unified army, Abd al-Malik marched against the Zubayrids of Iraq, having already secretly secured the defection of the province's leading tribal chiefs, and defeated Iraq's ruler, Ibn al-Zubayr's brother [[Mus'ab ibn al-Zubayr|Mus'ab]], at the [[Battle of Maskin]] in 691.{{sfn|Kennedy|2001|p=33}}{{sfn|Dixon|1969|pp=235–239}} Afterward, the Umayyad commander [[al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf]] [[siege of Mecca (692)|besieged Mecca]] and killed Ibn al-Zubayr in 692, marking the end of the Second Fitna and the reunification of the caliphate under Abd al-Malik's rule.{{sfn|Kennedy|2004|p=98}}

====Domestic consolidation and centralization====
[[File:First Umayyad gold dinar, Caliph Abd al-Malik, 695 CE.jpg|thumb|upright=0.8|Abd al-Malik introduced an independent Islamic currency, the [[gold dinar]], in 693, which originally depicted a human figure, likely the caliph, as shown in this coin minted in 695. In 697, the figural depictions were replaced solely by Qur'anic and other Islamic inscriptions]]

Iraq remained politically unstable and the garrisons of Kufa and Basra had become exhausted by warfare with Kharijite rebels.{{sfn|Gibb|1960b|p=76}}{{sfn|Kennedy|2001|p=33}} In 694 Abd al-Malik combined both cities as a single province under the governorship of al-Hajjaj, who oversaw the suppression of the Kharijite revolts in Iraq and Iran by 698 and was subsequently given authority over the rest of the eastern caliphate.{{sfn|Kennedy|2016|p=87}}{{sfn|Wellhausen|1927|p=231}} Resentment among the Iraqi troops towards al-Hajjaj's methods of governance, particularly his death threats to force participation in the war efforts and his reductions to their stipends, culminated with a mass Iraqi rebellion against the Umayyads in {{circa|700}}. The leader of the rebels was the Kufan nobleman [[Ibn al-Ash'ath]], grandson of al-Ash'ath ibn Qays.{{sfn|Kennedy|2016|pp=87–88}} Al-Hajjaj defeated Ibn al-Ash'ath's rebels at the [[Battle of Dayr al-Jamajim]] in April.{{sfn|Kennedy|2016|p=88}}{{sfn|Kennedy|2001|p=34}} The suppression of the revolt marked the end of the Iraqi ''muqātila'' as a military force and the beginning of Syrian military domination of Iraq.{{sfn|Gibb|1960b|p=77}}{{sfn|Kennedy|2001|p=34}} Iraqi internal divisions, and the utilization of more disciplined Syrian forces by Abd al-Malik and al-Hajjaj, voided the Iraqis' attempt to reassert power in the province.{{sfn|Kennedy|2016|p=88}}

To consolidate Umayyad rule after the Second Fitna, the Marwanids launched a series of centralization, [[Islamization]] and [[Arabization]] measures.{{sfn|Kennedy|2016|p=85}}{{sfn|Hawting|2000|p=62}} These measures included the creation of multiple classes of Arabic-inscribed administrative media as a way to proliferate their particular political, cultural, and religious disposition to both Arab and non-Arab audiences.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Ramadan |first=Tareq A. |date=2017 |title=Inscribed Administrative Material Culture And The Development Of The Umayyad State In Syria-Palestine 661-750 CE (Dissertation) |journal=Wayne State University Dissertations |url=https://digitalcommons.wayne.edu/oa_dissertations/1860/}}</ref> To prevent further rebellions in Iraq, al-Hajjaj founded a permanent Syrian garrison in [[Wasit]], situated between Kufa and Basra, and instituted a more rigorous administration in the province.{{sfn|Kennedy|2016|p=88}}{{sfn|Kennedy|2001|p=34}} Power thereafter derived from the Syrian troops, who became Iraq's ruling class, while Iraq's Arab nobility, religious scholars and ''mawālī'' became their virtual subjects.{{sfn|Kennedy|2016|p=88}} The surplus from the agriculturally rich [[Sawad]] lands was redirected from the ''muqātila'' to the caliphal treasury in Damascus to pay the Syrian troops in Iraq.{{sfn|Kennedy|2001|p=34}}{{sfn|Kennedy|2016|p=85}} The system of military pay established by Umar, which paid stipends to veterans of the earlier Muslim conquests and their descendants, was ended, salaries being restricted to those in active service.{{sfn|Kennedy|2016|p=89}} The old system was considered a handicap on Abd al-Malik's executive authority and financial ability to reward loyalists in the army.{{sfn|Kennedy|2016|p=89}} Thus, a professional army was established during Abd al-Malik's reign whose salaries derived from tax proceeds.{{sfn|Kennedy|2016|p=89}}

In 693, the Byzantine gold ''[[solidus (coin)|solidus]]'' was replaced in Syria and Egypt with the [[gold dinar|dinar]].{{sfn|Gibb|1960b|p=77}}{{sfn|Blankinship|1994|pp=28, 94}} Initially, the new coinage contained depictions of the caliph as the spiritual leader of the Muslim community and its supreme military commander.{{sfn|Blankinship|1994|p=28}} This image proved no less acceptable to Muslim officialdom and was replaced in 696 or 697 with image-less coinage inscribed with Qur'anic quotes and other Muslim religious formulas.{{sfn|Blankinship|1994|pp=28, 94}} In 698/699, similar changes were made to the silver [[dirham]]s issued by the Muslims in the former Sasanian Persian lands of the eastern caliphate.{{sfn|Blankinship|1994|p=94}} Arabic replaced [[Middle Persian|Persian]] as the language of the ''dīwān'' in Iraq in 697, [[Greek language|Greek]] in the Syrian ''dīwān'' in 700, and Greek and [[Coptic language|Coptic]] in the Egyptian ''dīwān'' in 705/706.{{sfn|Blankinship|1994|pp=28, 94}}{{sfn|Hawting|2000|p=63}}{{sfn|Duri|1965|p=324}} Arabic ultimately became the sole official language of the Umayyad state,{{sfn|Blankinship|1994|p=94}} but the transition in faraway provinces, such as Khurasan, did not occur until the 740s.{{sfn|Hawting|2000|pp=63–64}} Although the official language was changed, Greek and Persian-speaking bureaucrats who were versed in Arabic kept their posts.{{sfn|Wellhausen|1927|pp=219–220}} According to Gibb, the decrees were the "first step towards the reorganization and unification of the diverse tax-systems in the provinces, and also a step towards a more definitely Muslim administration".{{sfn|Gibb|1960b|p=77}} Indeed, it formed an important part of the Islamization measures that lent the Umayyad Caliphate "a more ideological and programmatic coloring it had previously lacked", according to Blankinship.{{sfn|Blankinship|1994|p=95}}

In 691/692, Abd al-Malik completed the [[Dome of the Rock]] in Jerusalem.{{sfn|Johns|2003|pp=424–426}}{{sfn|Elad|1999|p=45}} It was possibly intended as a monument of victory over the Christians that would distinguish Islam's uniqueness within the common [[Abrahamic]] setting of Jerusalem, home of the two older Abrahamic faiths, Judaism and Christianity.{{sfn|Grabar|1986|p=299}}{{sfn|Hawting|2000|p=60}} An alternative motive may have been to divert the religious focus of Muslims in the Umayyad realm from the Ka'aba in Zubayrid Mecca (683–692), where the Umayyads were routinely condemned during the Hajj.{{sfn|Grabar|1986|p=299}}{{sfn|Johns|2003|pp=425–426}}{{sfn|Hawting|2000|p=60}} In Damascus, Abd al-Malik's son and successor [[al-Walid I]] ({{reign|705|715}}) confiscated the cathedral of [[John the Baptist|St. John the Baptist]] and founded the [[Umayyad Mosque|Great Mosque]] in its place as a "symbol of the political supremacy and moral prestige of Islam", according to historian Nikita Elisséeff.{{sfn|Elisséeff|1965|p=801}} Noting al-Walid's awareness of architecture's propaganda value, historian Robert Hillenbrand calls the Damascus mosque a "victory monument" intended as a "visible statement of Muslim supremacy and permanence".{{sfn|Hillenbrand|1994|pp=71–72}}

====Renewal of conquests====
{{See also| Muslim conquest of Armenia|Muslim conquest of the Maghreb|Muslim conquest of Hispania|Muslim conquest of Transoxiana|Umayyad campaigns in India}}
[[File:Caliphate 750.jpg|thumb|upright=1.35|alt=Old map of western Eurasia and northern Africa showing the expansion of the Caliphate from Arabia to cover most of the Middle East, with the Byzantine Empire outlined in green|The expansion of the Muslim Caliphate until 750, from [[William R. Shepherd]]'s ''Historical Atlas''.<br>{{legend2|#df9860|Muslim state at the death of [[Muhammad]]}} {{legend2|#c29d44|Expansion under the [[Rashidun Caliphate]]}} {{legend2|#e4af90|Expansion under the Umayyad Caliphate}} {{legend-line|#99a53a solid 5px|[[Byzantine Empire]]}}]]

Under al-Walid I the Umayyad Caliphate reached its greatest territorial extent.{{sfn|Kennedy|2016|p=90}} The war with the Byzantines had resumed under his father after the civil war,{{sfn|Gibb|1960b|p=77}} with the Umayyads defeating the Byzantines at the [[Battle of Sebastopolis]] in 692.{{sfn|Gibb|1960b|p=77}}{{sfn|Lilie|1976|pp=110–112}} The Umayyads frequently raided Byzantine Anatolia and Armenia in the following years.{{sfn|Gibb|1960b|p=77}}{{sfn|Lilie|1976|pp=112–116}} By 705, Armenia was annexed by the caliphate along with the principalities of [[Caucasian Albania]] and [[Principality of Iberia|Iberia]], which collectively became the province of [[Arminiya]].{{sfn|Blankinship|1994|p=107}}{{sfn|Ter-Ghewondyan|1976|pp=20–21}}{{sfn|Lilie|1976|pp=113–115}} In 695–698 the commander [[Hassan ibn al-Nu'man al-Ghassani]] restored Umayyad control over Ifriqiya after defeating the Byzantines and Berbers there.{{sfn|Kaegi|2010|p=14}}{{sfn|Talbi|1971|p=271}} [[Battle of Carthage (698)|Carthage was captured]] and destroyed in 698,{{sfn|Gibb|1960b|p=77}}{{sfn|Talbi|1971|p=271}} signaling "the final, irretrievable end of [[Exarchate of Africa|Roman power in Africa]]", according to Kennedy.{{sfn|Kennedy|2007|p=217}} Kairouan was firmly secured as a launchpad for later conquests, while the port town of [[medina of Tunis|Tunis]] was founded and equipped with an arsenal on Abd al-Malik's orders to establish a strong Arab fleet.{{sfn|Gibb|1960b|p=77}}{{sfn|Talbi|1971|p=271}} Hassan ibn al-Nu'man continued the campaign against the Berbers, defeating them and killing their leader, the warrior queen [[al-Kahina]], between 698 and 703.{{sfn|Kaegi|2010|p=14}} His successor in Ifriqiya, [[Musa ibn Nusayr]], subjugated the Berbers of the [[Hawwara]], [[Zenata]] and [[Kutama]] confederations and advanced into the [[Maghreb]] (western North Africa), conquering [[Tangier]] and [[Sous|Sus]] in 708/709. Musa's Berber ''[[mawla]]'', [[Tariq ibn Ziyad]], invaded the [[Visigothic Kingdom]] of [[Al-Andalus|Hispania]] (the Iberian Peninsula) in 711 and within five years most of [[Umayyad conquest of Hispania|Hispania was conquered]].{{sfn|Kennedy|2016|p=90}}{{sfn|Lévi-Provençal|1993|p=643}}{{sfn|Kaegi|2010|p=15}}

[[File:Umayyad Caliphate coinage temp Suleiman ibn Abd al-Malik al-Hind (possibly Multan) mint. Dated AH 97 (AD 715-6).jpg|thumb|300px|Umayyad coinage in India, from the time of the first [[Caliphal province of Sind|Governor of Sind]] [[Muhammad ibn Qasim]]. Minted in India "[[al-Hind]]" (possibly in the city of [[Multan]]), dated AH 97 (715–716 CE): obverse circular legend ''"in the name of Allah, struck this dirham in [[al-Hind]] ([[File:India in Abd al-Malik al-Hind coin 715 CE (detail).jpg|20px]] ''{{lang|ar|[[:ary:لهند|لهند]]}}'' l'Hind) in the year seven and ninety"''.]]

Al-Hajjaj managed the eastern expansion from Iraq.{{sfn|Kennedy|2002|p=127}} His lieutenant governor of [[Greater Khorasan|Khurasan]], [[Qutayba ibn Muslim]], launched numerous campaigns against [[Transoxiana]] (Central Asia), which had been a largely impenetrable region for earlier Muslim armies, between 705 and 715.{{sfn|Kennedy|2002|p=127}} Despite the distance from the Arab garrison towns of Khurasan, the unfavorable terrain and climate and his enemies' numerical superiority,{{sfn|Wellhausen|1927|p=438}} Qutayba, through his persistent raids, gained the surrender of [[Bukhara]] in 706–709, [[Khwarazm]] and [[Samarkand]] in 711–712 and [[Farghana]] in 713.{{sfn|Kennedy|2002|p=127}} He established Arab garrisons and tax administrations in Samarkand and Bukhara and demolished their [[Zoroastrian]] [[fire temple]]s.{{sfn|Wellhausen|1927|pp=437–438}} Both cities developed as future centers of Islamic and Arabic learning.{{sfn|Wellhausen|1927|p=438}} Umayyad suzerainty was secured over the rest of conquered Transoxiana through tributary alliances with local rulers, whose power remained intact.{{sfn|Kennedy|2016|pp=90–91}} From 708/709, al-Hajjaj's kinsman [[Muhammad ibn al-Qasim al-Thaqafi|Muhammad ibn al-Qasim]] conquered northwestern South Asia and established out of this new territory the [[Sind (caliphal province)|province of Sind]].{{sfn|Dietrich|1971|p=41}}{{sfn|Kennedy|2016|p=91}} The massive war spoils netted by the conquests of Transoxiana, Sind and Hispania were comparable to the amounts accrued in the [[early Muslim conquests]] during the reign of Caliph Umar.{{sfn|Blankinship|1994|p=82}}

Al-Walid I's successor, his brother [[Sulayman ibn Abd al-Malik|Sulayman]] ({{reign|715|717}}), continued his predecessors' [[militarism|militarist]] policies, but expansion mostly ground to a halt during his reign.{{sfn|Eisener|1997|p=821}} The deaths of al-Hajjaj in 714 and Qutayba in 715 left the Arab armies in Transoxiana in disarray. For the next 25 years, no further eastward conquests were undertaken and the Arabs lost territory.{{sfn|Gibb|1923|p=54}} The [[Tang dynasty|Tang Chinese]] defeated the Arabs at the [[Battle of Aksu (717)|Battle of Aksu]] in 717, forcing their withdrawal to [[Tashkent]].{{sfn|Beckwith|1993|pp=88–89}} Meanwhile, in 716, the governor of Khurasan, [[Yazid ibn al-Muhallab]], attempted to conquer the principalities of [[Jurjan]] and [[Tabaristan]] along the southern [[Caspian Sea|Caspian]] coast.{{sfn|Madelung|1975|pp=198–199}} His Khurasani and Iraqi troops were reinforced by Syrians, marking their first deployment to Khurasan, but the Arabs' initial successes were reversed by the local Iranian coalition of [[Farrukhan the Great]]. Afterward, the Arabs withdrew in return for a tributary agreement.{{Sfn|Madelung|1993}}

[[File:47-cropped-manasses-chronicle.jpg|thumb|upright=1|left|alt=Medieval illustration showing cavalry sallying from a city and routing an enemy army|A 14th-century illustration of the [[Siege of Constantinople (717–718)|siege of Constantinople]]]]

On the Byzantine front, Sulayman took up his predecessor's project to capture Constantinople with increased vigor.{{sfn|Treadgold|1997|p=344}} His brother [[Maslama ibn Abd al-Malik|Maslama]] [[Siege of Constantinople (717–718)|besieged the Byzantine capital]] from the land,{{sfn|Powers|1989|pp=39–40}} while [[Umar ibn Hubayra al-Fazari]] launched a naval campaign against the city.{{sfn|Eisener|1997|p=821}} The Byzantines destroyed the Umayyad fleets and defeated Maslama's army, prompting his withdrawal to Syria in 718.{{sfn|Treadgold|1997|pp=347–348}} The massive losses incurred during the campaign led to a partial retrenchment of Umayyad forces from the captured Byzantine frontier districts,{{sfn|Blankinship|1994|pp=33–34}}{{sfn|Lilie|1976|pp=132–133}} but already in 720, Umayyad raids against Byzantium recommenced. Nevertheless, the goal of conquering Constantinople was effectively abandoned, and the frontier between the two empires stabilized along the line of the [[Taurus Mountains|Taurus]] and [[Anti-Taurus Mountains]], over which both sides continued to launch regular raids and counter-raids during the next centuries.{{sfn|Blankinship|1994|pp=117–121}}{{sfn|Lilie|1976|pp=143–144, 158–162}}

====Caliphate of Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz====
Contrary to expectations of a son or brother succeeding him, Sulayman had nominated his cousin, [[Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz]], as his successor and he took office in 717. After the Arabs' severe losses in the offensive against Constantinople, Umar drew down Arab forces on the caliphate's war fronts, though [[Narbonne]] in modern France was conquered during his reign.{{sfn|Cobb|2000|p=821}}{{sfn|Blankinship|1994|pp=33–34}}{{sfn|Wellhausen|1927|p=268–269}} To maintain stronger oversight in the provinces, Umar dismissed all his predecessors' governors, his new appointees being generally competent men he could control. To that end, the massive viceroyalty of Iraq and the east was broken up.{{sfn|Cobb|2000|p=821}}{{sfn|Kennedy|2004|p=106}}

Umar's most significant policy entailed fiscal reforms to equalize the status of the Arabs and ''mawali'',{{sfn|Blankinship|1994|p=31}} thus remedying a long-standing issue which threatened the Muslim community.{{sfn|Kennedy|2004|p=107}} The [[jizya]] (poll tax) on the ''mawali'' was eliminated.{{sfn|Hawting|2000|p=77}} Hitherto, the jizya, which was traditionally reserved for the non-Muslim majorities of the caliphate, continued to be imposed on non-Arab converts to Islam, while all Muslims who cultivated conquered lands were liable to pay the {{Transliteration|ar|kharaj}} (land tax). Since avoidance of taxation incentivized both mass conversions to Islam and abandonment of land for migration to the garrison cities, it put a strain on tax revenues, especially in Egypt, Iraq and Khurasan.{{sfn|Hawting|2000|pp=77–79}} Thus, "the Umayyad rulers had a vested interest in preventing the conquered peoples from accepting Islam or forcing them to continue paying those taxes from which they claimed exemption as Muslims", according to Hawting.{{sfn|Hawting|2000|p=78}} To prevent a collapse in revenue, the converts' lands would become the property of their villages and remain liable for the full rate of the {{Transliteration|ar|kharaj}}.{{sfn|Kennedy|2004|p=107}}

In tandem, Umar intensified the Islamization drive of his Marwanid predecessors, enacting measures to distinguish Muslims from non-Muslims and inaugurating Islamic [[iconoclasm]].{{sfn|Blankinship|1994|p=32}} His position among the Umayyad caliphs is unusual, in that he became the only one to have been recognized in subsequent Islamic tradition as a genuine caliph (''khalifa'') and not merely as a worldly king (''malik'').{{sfn|Kennedy|2002|p=107}}

===Late Marwanid period===
After the death of Umar II, another son of Abd al-Malik, [[Yazid II]] ({{reign|720|724}}) became caliph. Not long after his accession, another mass revolt against Umayyad rule was staged in Iraq, this time by the prominent statesman [[Yazid ibn al-Muhallab]]. The latter declared a holy war against the Umayyads, took control of Basra and Wasit and gained the support of the Kufan elite. The caliph's Syrian army defeated the rebels and pursued and nearly eliminated the influential [[Muhallabid]]s, marking the suppression of the last major Iraqi revolt against the Umayyads.{{sfn|Wellhausen|1927|pp=313–318}}

Yazid II reversed Umar II's equalization reforms, reimposing the jizya on the {{Transliteration|ar|mawali}}, which sparked revolts in Khurasan in 721 or 722 that persisted for some twenty years and met strong resistance among the Berbers of Ifriqiya, where the Umayyad governor was assassinated by his discontented Berber guards.{{sfn|Lammens|Blankinship|2002|p=311}} Warfare on the frontiers was also resumed, with renewed annual raids against the Byzantines and the [[Khazars]] in [[Transcaucasia]].{{sfn|Blankinship|1994|p=87}}

====Caliphate of Hisham and end of expansion====
[[File:Resafa, Sergiopolis 3, Syria.jpg|thumb|The city of [[Resafa]], site of Hisham's palace and court]]
[[File:Arabischer Maler um 730 002.jpg|thumb|Musicians and hunting cavalier, circa 730 CE. Floor fresco from Hisham's [[Qasr al-Hayr al-Gharbi]], Syria. National Museum, Damascus.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Ettinghausen |first1=Richard |title=Arab painting |date=1977 |publisher=New York : Rizzoli |isbn=978-0-8478-0081-0 |pages=34–37 |url=https://archive.org/details/arabpainting0000etti/page/34/mode/2up}}</ref>]]
The final son of Abd al-Malik to become caliph was [[Hisham ibn Abd al-Malik|Hisham]] ({{reign|724|743}}), whose long and eventful reign was above all marked by the curtailment of military expansion. Hisham established his court at [[Resafa]] in northern Syria, which was closer to the Byzantine border than Damascus, and resumed hostilities against the Byzantines, which had lapsed following the failure of the last siege of Constantinople. The new campaigns resulted in a number of successful raids into [[Anatolia]], but also in a major defeat (the [[Battle of Akroinon]]), and did not lead to any significant territorial expansion.

From the caliphate's north-western African bases, a series of raids on coastal areas of the [[Visigothic Kingdom]] paved the way to the [[Umayyad conquest of Hispania|permanent occupation of most of Iberia]] by the Umayyads (starting in 711), and [[Islamic invasion of Gaul|on into south-eastern Gaul]] (last stronghold at Narbonne in 759). Hisham's reign witnessed the end of expansion in the west, following the defeat of the Arab army by the [[Franks]] at the [[Battle of Tours]] in 732. Arab expansion had already been limited following the [[Battle of Toulouse (721)|Battle of Toulouse]] in 721. In 739 a major [[Berber Revolt]] broke out in North Africa, which was probably the largest military setback in the reign of Caliph Hisham. From it emerged some of the first Muslim states outside the caliphate. It is also regarded as the beginning of Moroccan independence, as [[Morocco]] would never again come under the rule of an eastern caliph or any other foreign power until the 20th century. It was followed by the collapse of Umayyad authority in al-Andalus. In [[India]], the Umayyad armies were defeated by the south Indian [[Chalukya dynasty]] and by the north Indian [[Gurjara-Pratihara dynasty|Pratiharas]], stagnating further eastward Arab expansion.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Allan |first1=J. |last2=Haig |first2=T. Wolseley |author-link2=Wolseley Haig |last3=Dodwell |first3=H. H. |author-link3=H. H. Dodwell |editor-last=Dodwell |editor-first=H. H. |chapter=Northern India in Medieval Times |year=1934 |title=The Cambridge Shorter History of India |location=Cambridge |publisher=Cambridge University Press |pages=131–132 |url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.283073}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Thapar |first=Romila |isbn=978-0520242258 |title=Early India: From the Origins to A.D. 1300 |date=February 2004 |author-link=Romila Thapar |page=333|publisher=University of California Press }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=An Atlas and Survey of South Asian History |first=Karl J. |last=Schmidt |date=1995 |page=34 |publisher=M.E. Sharpe |isbn=9781563243349}}</ref>
[[File:Caliphate 740-en.svg|thumb|upright=1.35|The Umayyad Caliphate in 740 CE]]
In the [[Caucasus]], the [[Arab–Khazar Wars|confrontation]] with the [[Khazars]] peaked under Hisham: the Arabs established [[Derbent]] as a major military base and launched several invasions of the northern Caucasus, but failed to subdue the nomadic Khazars. The conflict was arduous and bloody, and the Arab army even suffered a major defeat at the [[Battle of Marj Ardabil]] in 730. Marwan ibn Muhammad, the future Marwan II, finally ended the war in 737 with a massive invasion that is reported to have reached as far as the [[Volga]], but the Khazars remained unsubdued.

Hisham suffered still worse defeats in the east, where his armies attempted to subdue both [[Tokharistan]], with its centre at [[Balkh]], and [[Transoxiana]], with its centre at [[Samarkand]]. Both areas had already been partially conquered but remained difficult to govern. Once again, a particular difficulty concerned the question of the conversion of non-Arabs, especially the [[Sogdiana|Sogdians]] of Transoxiana. Following the Umayyad defeat in the "[[Day of Thirst]]" in 724, Ashras ibn 'Abd Allah al-Sulami, governor of [[Greater Khorasan|Khurasan]], promised tax relief to those Sogdians who converted to Islam but went back on his offer when it proved too popular and threatened to reduce tax revenues.

Discontent among the Khorasani Arabs rose sharply after the losses suffered in the [[Battle of the Defile]] in 731. In 734, [[al-Harith ibn Surayj]] led a revolt that received broad backing from Arabs and natives alike, capturing Balkh but failing to take [[Merv]]. After this defeat, al-Harith's movement seems to have been dissolved. The problem of the rights of non-Arab Muslims would continue to plague the Umayyads.

====Third Fitna====
{{main|Third Fitna}}
Hisham was succeeded by [[Al-Walid II]] (743–744), the son of Yazid II. Al-Walid is reported to have been more interested in earthly pleasures than in religion, a reputation that may be confirmed by the decoration of the so-called "desert palaces" (including [[Qasr Amra|Qusayr Amra]] and [[Khirbat al-Mafjar]]) that have been attributed to him. He quickly attracted the enmity of many, both by executing a number of those who had opposed his accession and by persecuting the [[Al-Qadariyya|Qadariyya]].

In 744, [[Yazid III]], a son of al-Walid I, was proclaimed caliph in Damascus, and his army tracked down and killed al-Walid II. Yazid III has received a certain reputation for piety and may have been sympathetic to the Qadariyya. He died a mere six months into his reign.

Yazid had appointed his brother, [[Ibrahim of Umayyad|Ibrahim]], as his successor, but [[Marwan II]] (744–750), the grandson of Marwan I, led an army from the northern frontier and entered Damascus in December 744, where he was proclaimed caliph. Marwan immediately moved the capital north to [[Harran]], in present-day [[Turkey]]. A rebellion soon broke out in Syria, perhaps due to resentment over the relocation of the capital, and in 746 Marwan razed the walls of [[Homs]] and Damascus in retaliation.

Marwan also faced significant opposition from Kharijites in Iraq and Iran, who put forth first [[Al-Dahhak ibn Qays al-Shaybani|Dahhak ibn Qays]] and then Abu Dulaf as rival caliphs. In 747, Marwan managed to reestablish control of Iraq, but by this time a more serious threat had arisen in [[greater Khorasan|Khorasan]].

====Abbasid Revolution and fall====
{{main|Abbasid Revolution}}
[[File:revolt.png|thumb|upright=1.35|The caliphate at the beginning of the [[Abbasid]] revolt, before the [[Battle of the Zab]]]]

The [[Hashimiyya]] movement (a sub-sect of the [[Kaysanites Shia]]), led by the [[Abbasid]] family, overthrew the Umayyad caliphate. The Abbasids were members of the [[Banu Hashim|Hashim]] clan, rivals of the Umayyads, but the word "Hashimiyya" seems to refer specifically to Abu Hashim, a grandson of Ali and son of Muhammad ibn al-Hanafiyya. According to certain traditions, Abu Hashim died in 717 in Humeima in the house of Muhammad ibn Ali, the head of the Abbasid family, and before dying named Muhammad ibn Ali as his successor. This tradition allowed the Abbasids to rally the supporters of the failed revolt of [[Mukhtar]], who had represented themselves as the supporters of Muhammad ibn al-Hanafiyya.

Beginning around 719, Hashimiyya missions began to seek adherents in Khurasan. Their campaign was framed as one of proselytism ([[dawah]]). They sought support for a "member of the family" of Muhammad, without making explicit mention of the Abbasids. These missions met with success both among Arabs and non-Arabs ([[mawali]]), although the latter may have played a particularly important role in the growth of the movement.

Around 746, [[Abu Muslim]] assumed leadership of the Hashimiyya in Khurasan. In 747, he successfully initiated an open revolt against Umayyad rule, which was carried out under the sign of the [[Black Standard|black flag]]. He soon established control of Khurasan, expelling its Umayyad governor, [[Nasr ibn Sayyar]], and dispatched an army westwards. Kufa fell to the Hashimiyya in 749, the last Umayyad stronghold in Iraq, [[Wasit]], was [[Siege of Wasit|placed under siege]], and in November of the same year [[As-Saffah|Abul Abbas as-Saffah]] was recognized as the new caliph in the mosque at Kufa.{{Citation needed|date=July 2009}} At this point Marwan mobilized his troops from Harran and advanced toward Iraq. In January 750 the two forces met in the [[Battle of the Zab]], and the Umayyads were defeated. Damascus fell to the Abbasids in April, and in August, Marwan was killed in Egypt.{{citation needed|date=May 2022}} Some Umayyads in Syria continued to resist the takeover. The Umayyad princes [[Abu Muhammad al-Sufyani]], al-Abbas ibn Muhammad, and Hashim ibn Yazid launched revolts in Syria and the Islamic–Byzantine frontier around late 750, but they were defeated.{{sfn|Cobb|2001|pp=47–50}}

The victors desecrated the tombs of the Umayyads in Syria, sparing only that of [[Umar II]], and most of the remaining members of the Umayyad family were tracked down and killed. When Abbasids declared amnesty for members of the Umayyad family, eighty gathered to receive pardons, and all were massacred. One grandson of Hisham, [[Abd al-Rahman I]], survived, escaped across North Africa, and established an emirate in [[Moors|Moorish]] [[Iberian Peninsula|Iberia]] ([[Al-Andalus]]). In a claim unrecognized outside of al-Andalus, he maintained that the Umayyad Caliphate, the true, authentic caliphate, more legitimate than the Abbasids, was continued through him in [[Emirate of Córdoba|Córdoba]]. It was to survive for centuries.

Some Umayyads also survived in Syria,{{sfn|Cobb|2001|p=43}} and their descendants would once more attempt to restore their old regime during the [[Fourth Fitna]]. Two Umayyads, [[Abu al-Umaytir al-Sufyani]] and Maslama ibn Ya'qub, successively seized control of Damascus from 811 to 813, and declared themselves caliphs. However, their rebellions were suppressed.{{sfn|Cobb|2001|pp=56–61}}

Previté-Orton argues that the reason for the decline of the Umayyads was the rapid expansion of Islam. During the Umayyad period, mass conversions brought Persians, Berbers, Copts, and Aramaic to Islam. These ''mawalis'' (clients) were often better educated and more civilised than their Arab overlords. The new converts, on the basis of equality of all Muslims, transformed the political landscape. Previté-Orton also argues that the feud between Syria and Iraq further weakened the empire.{{sfn|Previté-Orton|1971|loc=vol. 1, p. 239}}